Ah, the knee injury...

I recall 'twas a night in a colonial building with some lovely large ladies, lots of rum and ting followed by an early departure off the banana boat next day....

Me

Just trying to recall which member of the crew told the Banana boat driver " there is no way you are getting us off the boat !"

Montserrat
 

The eruption on Chancellors Peak in the Soufriere Mountains was the real reason we were in Antigua, ferrying marines into the strip named after Steptoe's dad. William Brambell. It was a tough job but somebody had to do it.
Therefore we were on active duty, even when we were the heaviest crew ever on an inflatable banana. My case rests.
Dougie

Foot and Mouth
 

Had some interesting times up at West Frugh during Foot and Mouth. I did not realise cows could swim!


AA62. Was your motorbike in around 94/5. by the time I got to JATE it had developed a roll over cage and could carry two.


Nice to have you back on board KSim


Drag

Drag,if you look carefully,you`ll see there are 2 wobbly wheels; as they`re back to back and joined in the middle,they can only go round in circles ....

Maldrop
 

JATE had, and presumably still has, a video of a MSP drop of a Landrovers in which, unfortunately, the L/R departed the platform as it was vertical and made a solo descent without bothering the parachutes. Does anybody have a copy?

dragartist,
I am sure the motorbike trials were much earlier than your time at Jate.
As I recall there were two bikes per board.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps30b8851e.jpg

Another in the small vehicle trials. Vague memory this may have been a Citroen,

Ah Sycamore I must have had my wrong head on last night. The serious one!


my view is that the people involved have shown a lot of ingenuity over the years. Harry Packe and his wicker baskets for instance. SEAC pack is still a masterpiece today. We went from the highly technical in the 50s with MSP / HSP and then through an agricultural stage where everything had to be done with a bit of wood and cord. Not sure when Dufelyte replaced straw in sacks. The motorbike board I saw develop into an angle iron frame around the board with Quick release pins to remove a tubular steel roll cage. There were steel posts to tie two motorbikes upright.. The airdrop kit weighed more than the payload. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I don't think it got beyond the trials phase. Effort was being put into quads bikes (Honda Grizzly I think) No idea how far this got on the K. Effort was being put into the J where restraint requirements were being adhered too.


Again, only my view, but we appear to have gone all agricultural again.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps06216d74.jpg

As you can see sometimes the small vehicle turned over. I think the poor cross country performance of these vehicles were their downfall thus the quad bikes as mentioned by dragartist were tried. But not in my time.
As regards the provision of a cage with quick release pins for motorbikes etc We tried something like that during my time at JATE. The big problem was the potential for the pins to bend on impact. Even a small distortion would make it almost impossible to remove them. Anyone who has struggled with the drop nose pins on the a/c role equipment will understand this only too well.

I have just noticed that Coffman's 'baby' has gone over the 200000 views mark.
He will be pleased when he returns from his break.
I am pleasantly surprised at the number. Now if only some of those watching would contribute we may go even further.

What is that device attached to the left wingtip in the photo in post #13? Antenna? Weapons rail? Something else?

ken,
The item was MAROC(Marshalls Orange Crop) , a step up from hand held RWR kit.

I'd always thought that was Maritime Orange Crop - oh well . . .

Think it depends who you talk to Brian, all I remember was it was lots of pretty coloured lights and nice buzzy noises when you were locked up by radar/ missiles. Of course when it was on board the aircraft there was no dedicated operator in the early days.

Ksimboy,

Well remembered. From the point of view of the GE MAROC was indeed an abbreviated MARshalls Orange Crop. Orange crop originally being part of the Vulcan ECM package. Curiously Wiki lists - Orange Blossom - Pod-mounted electronic support measures used on the Hercules. Either way, it was basically a bolt on to help with Radar detection warning. During the Sarajevo airlift, operated by SF crews, the crew were augmented by the inclusion of an Air Electronics Operator (anyone remember the "Bushy Bushy Steaks ?) who fed loads of chirps and squeaks on to the intercom circuit, and generally caused worry amongst the less knowledgeable, like myself. Although, a good in flight, approach based briefing soon had me in awe of these "one winged masters of chirruping"! Meanwhile, the other problem with the pods on the wingtip was the change in wing loading, meaning that fuel loads were changed for the modified aircraft to allow for the extra weight at the extremes of the wing. Not a problem on SF trips for the GE, but often caused problems when a modified aircraft was used for a standard route, and fuel was critical. I've no doubt that things have moved on since those days, but from my perspective, it was another aid to keep us all alive when others wanted to do otherwise. Welcome back Ksimboy, hope you recover fully and soon mate.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps95fdf6ae.jpg

XV200 on the bay at Falconara (Ancona) note the MAROC pod.

Smudge:ok:

Hi chaps from Prague. Yes I know I shouldn't be operating my iPhone after sampling a good few Vodkas, but I'm so pleased that so many of you have enjoyed this thread. Back to UK tomorrow via squeeze jet :-(

Smuj,

Orange Crop had nothing to do with the Vulcan ECM package, it was derived from the kit fitted to the Royal Navy's helos.

ExAscoteer,

Yes, interesting that. After posting I did a little research, and sure enough, Orange Crop was an RWR fit to the Lynx, as you say. The same Wiki article quotes the RWR fit to the C130K as "Orange Blossom". Now, once again the mystery of avionics on Albert highlights perhaps the misconceptions of many of us, who worked with it. As a GE, I never had a crew report that it had failed in operation, and I'm sure they would have had it happened. And thinking about it, the only positive briefing I had on it during my time was the difference in fuel loads required as per the standard wing set. Apologies if I threw a false lead into the smooth working of the thread, it's been a long time though. I still maintain that for some reason, most GEs knew it as MAROC (MARshalls Orange Crop) how deluded we were. Thanks for the heads up.

Smudge:ok:

smudge,
I think most of us used the various terms at one time or another in respect of the same kit. I think dragartist may have had something to do with this and hopefully he will be along soon to put the record straight.
Picking up DM's thread about rum I recall being in a sandy place waiting to go into dinner with the captain. We had a rum punch and as we drank we looked at each other quizzically. Then we watched the barman mix the drinks. The mix contained ninety percent rum and ten percent other ! We postponed further imbibing until after dinner.
This sandy place was Barbados, not your sort of sand smudge but someone has to do these tasks, but it was only for eleven days ! Story next time.

AA62,

I say old chap, I wasn't a Gulf only GE you know. I had a very happy 10 days based out of.The Grand Barbados, and like you, enjoyed the "variations" of Rum on offer. Of course, The Bermudiana and its environs were good for Dark and Stormy's and I still have my "screeching in" certificate from Trapper Johns. Rum was certainly a feature in travels west for the Albert team. Looking forward to the tale.

Smudge :ok: